Can I kill a hd by tilting my computer?

Brothernod

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 29, 2001
Messages
340
Ok, This sounds kind of stupid but here is what happened.

I have a sff case. The harddrive is placed left to right under the cd drive parallel to the bottom of the case (i hope that's clear). While my computer was on, not doing anything in particular that I can recall, I lifted up the front of the case (leaving the back on the ground) to look if something I was missing was under it. While lifted I heard the hd make some noise and the computer blue screened (to be honest I don't recall if this was while I had it lifted, as I put it down, or just moments after).

When I restarted the computer it said it couldn't find the boot drive.

I turned off the case and all power to it over night.

This morning when I booted it, it got into windows, but didn't finish loading before it started making noise. Every 10 seconds or so it would make a click sound then spin down, then back up and repeat.


This is a 2 month old 320gb WD sata 3.0 ES drive (with the 5 year warranty).

Is it really possible that I killed my drive by tilting it? This seems ridiculous.
 
Nope.

Perhaps this sound you heard was a cable jamming into a fan? This could be possible as you are tilting a case. A stuck fan could cause the computer to shut off.

Since you mention the click click noise, I suppose it could be possible that the hard drive died but then it didn't have much life left in it to begin with.
 
Hi,

I would say that tilting a spinning 3.5" harddisk could kill it. 3.5" harddisks are built for stationary use, not for being lugged or tossed around.

But you should check all cables and fans first.

Hans-Jürgen
 
gently tilting a spinning hard drive shouldn't kill it... (I do it all the time), but a jar (shock) to the system may (while tilting the system).

There is very little clearance between the read/write heads and the spinning platter(s) of a hard drive. If you are hearing a clicking noise every 10 seconds, I highly doubt that it is a fan/cable noise, and you are correct that the sound is coming from a bad hard drive.
 
It's more likely that tilting the case caused something that wasn't securely attached to loosen or move. If your drive did get trashed, it's likely a coincidence - even desktop drives have pretty high g-force ratings after all. If drives were that sensitive, no laptop would exist.

Open the case and check for anything that's loose. Make sure all cables are seated properly.

If it is your drive, the warranty should cover it.
 
It's the drive. I've heard the noise before (not on this drive). Everything is seated well in the case (and it wasn't covered so that was easy to check).

I'm certain it's covered under warranty, just a little bummed as that sure doesn't seem durable. I didn't really move it roughly.... but whatever.

Thanks for the input, just wanted to make sure what I thought happened did.
 
I definitely didn't drop it. But I think it made the noise while elevated.... i'm kinda stressed about this so my memory is fuzzy.
 
If drives were that sensitive, no laptop would exist.

This is a very valid point.

I remember back when 10k drives first came out.. setting one on a bench and spinning it up... fun times.

It's just a coincidence.. or as said before your drive was on it's way out anyhow... assuming it is your drive that's dead, and not a bad/loose cable.
 
Check and make sure the power connector is on good. I have a 40gb wd that has a problem with the power connector so about once a month I would have to reset the power cord for it because it would start clicking.
 
Hi,

If drives were that sensitive, no laptop would exist.

This is a very valid point.

No. Laptops use 2.5" harddisks that are built for that purpose. The OP had a 3.5" harddisk.

A 2.5" harddisk has about the same or more operational shock tolerance as the non-operational shock for 3.5" harddisks. This means that you can kill a *switched-off* 3.5" harddisk with a knock the a *running* 2.5" harddisk could survive!

Hans-Jürgen
 
hjreggel, please stop putting your name signature below every post, it is against forum rules.


As for the comments on the hard drives, I've used a full running computer in an SUV before, no problems (don't ask, lol).

Heck, a few car computer companies used to use desktop drives, a lot of people still do with car computers and have seen no problems. I've seen peoples computers falling off tables still working, tipped over, moved, etc etc etc.

The circumstances on this issue is very rare, I would say it might have been a faulty drive to begin with that was just waiting for the moment to give out.
 
This sounds more like an issue with cheap cabling.

I personally had this problem before, and it happens most often on cheaply wired power supplies or shitty constructed Y adapters.

PC would be rocking and rolling fine for a bit, then all of a sudden I'd hear my maxtor drive "click" then spin right back up and the whole PC would crash like a cheap stock car.

This went on for awhile with me thinking it to be a faulty drive, but soon discovered it was a (Short?) in the molex plug going to the drive. After restarting the PC, the hard drive would often refuse to spin back up and the bios would give the common DISK BOOT FAILURE.
 
HD is more tougher than you think. At work, I like to play with the harddisks while it's spinning, turning in all directions to feel the "gyro" effect :D None died from my own fun and those who did are already defective anyway.

However, you can kill it by dropping it, knocking it a bit hard on a hard surface or bad wiring.
 
No. Laptops use 2.5" harddisks that are built for that purpose. The OP had a 3.5" harddisk.

A 2.5" harddisk has about the same or more operational shock tolerance as the non-operational shock for 3.5" harddisks.

This is greatly exaggerated. The biggest difference in the two formats is the spin rate and that's to preserve battery power.

What the OP did will hardly stand as an example of hard drive abuse. If it failed under those conditions, it was defective.
 
3.5" WD drives are typically rated 65G operational shock, 250G non-operational shock.

2.5" harddisks are typicall rated 250-300G operational shock, 800-1000G non-operational shock.

Do you still call my statement "greatly exaggerated". You should definitely check some harddisk datasheets in detail...
 
So I rebooted after adding a new hd with vista that I just setup this weekend, to the pc, and tried to copy the files, but the bios wasn't even recognizing the drive.

So I removed it from the pc, plugged it into a different SATA power connector and a different SATA connector on a different SATA port on the pc, plugged the Vista hd into the original hd's sata power and sata connectors. Also stood the questionable hd on it side (why not).

It now booted (into XP no less) and for the last 2 hours i've been moving data off the drive to my spare 400gb.


It very well could be the cabling, which just seems absurd (though I guess less absurd than my tilting the pc killing the drive). When i get more time next week i'm going to put everything back the way it was and see if the drive works.
For now it's the laptop for me.

I really appreciated all the discussion, thanks for the input guys.
 
3.5" WD drives are typically rated 65G operational shock, 250G non-operational shock.

Do you really think that the OP has hit his drive with anything near 65g by tilting the case? That's what the exaggeration is all about. He'd have to hit the case with several hundred pounds of force to do that.
 
3.5" WD drives are typically rated 65G operational shock, 250G non-operational shock.

2.5" harddisks are typicall rated 250-300G operational shock, 800-1000G non-operational shock.

Do you still call my statement "greatly exaggerated". You should definitely check some harddisk datasheets in detail...

65GS is a lot of force for a drive to be hitting... a simple bump wont do.
 
You're forgetting about the time that the force was exerted over. A very small force over a very small period of time is a large "G- factor"
 
You're forgetting about the time that the force was exerted over. A very small force over a very small period of time is a large "G- factor"

And you can do that by tilting the case? I didn't see anything in the post about tilting the case with a sledgehammer.
 
Back
Top